Chapter 69: Five Poisons (4)
Translator: bjgoofy
“No... it might just be a coincidence. Yeah. It has be a coincidence.”
First, I calmed my pounding heart.
Once I had calmed down, I recalled that situations like this sometimes happen when raising pets.
There are times when a pet coincidentally reacts to something the owner says, and the owner overreacts.
A common trap that owners fall into, believing their pet is the prettiest and smartest creature in the world.
The pet might have done something meaningless, but the owner assigns meaning to it and ends up believing their pet is a genius dog or a genius cat.
But I am an objective man, free of delusions and thoughtful.
Since something like this could really just be a coincidence, I decided it was necessary to verify and once again sent a thought to Cho in my mind.
‘Cho, come up onto my head.’
-Tsurur!
When I spoke again inwardly to check, Cho once again made a sound in reply and climbed onto my head.
I could even feel Cho coiling up like a hat on top of my head.
"Whoa...."
Cho moved, understanding what I had said only in my mind, without me even speaking aloud.
Though I had already passed the ridge of certainty, still- who am I?
Was I not the venomous creature YouTuber Maewoon Fabre, who raised countless poisonous creatures in my past life?
Thorough verification is a core element of broadcasting.
I first placed Cho down and asked it to stay put for a moment.
“Cho, wait here for a bit, okay? When I call you, come to me. Be still, and when you hear Daddy's voice, you have to run over.”
-Tsurur!
Then I went to a place where Cho couldn’t see me and thought in my mind again.
‘Cho, Daddy is hiding behind the front gate. Come here.’
A moment later, as expected, Cho peeked its head out past the gate like peek-a-boo.
Cho had really confirmed that I was behind the gate and came over, its antennae twitching.
The shiver that ran through my body at that sight.
Once might be coincidence, but twice is inevitability, and thrice is fate, no?
I had confirmed it three times in a row, so I couldn't be mistaken.
That meant there was no need to stay calm any longer.
“Aaaahhhhh! C-Could it be! Is our Cho a psychic centipede?”
Switching from intellect mode to mania mode, I couldn’t hold back the shout that burst out.
How could anyone possibly hold it in?
It felt like Cho and I were communicating telepathically.
Even though Cho couldn’t understand the words I thought, it could perfectly understand the meaning.
I picked up Cho and spoke.
“How, how did you understand? Cho, how did you know what I said?”
-Tsur?
Despite understanding so well before, now Cho tilted her head like she didn’t get it.
As expected, our Cho could pick up and drop his daddy's thoughts at will.
A genius of push-and-pull who’s sure to break the hearts of many male centipedes in the future, and a genius of telepathy, our Cho.
“You’ve shed twice now and come out of the larval stage, so maybe you’ve awakened as a spiritual creature or something? I wonder if the others can do it too? Cho, do you think your siblings can do this too?”
-Tsu?
Cho tilted her head again, and I quickly hugged her and headed toward Nunim.
I had to check whether the other kids could do the same.
I quickly dashed out of the Myriad Poison Hall and ran toward the inner courtyard of the Tang Family direct line. Entering through the open gate of the inner courtyard, I crossed the central garden and entered the backyard. There, I saw Nunim questioning the children she had placed on the gazebo.
“But where on earth did Cho go? She keeps wandering off, and she worries Mom so much. You two keep wandering too, it was so hard finding you.... Haa....”
As I approached, I heard Nunim’s voice.
Turns out, Nunim had placed the kids on the gazebo and was interrogating them about where Cho had gone.
-Tsurur?
-Kkukuk?
Nunim placed one hand slightly bent at her waist.
Judging from Nunim’s expression and tone, it seemed the centipedes were giving her quite the headache after their second molting.
And it looked like Cho had secretly come looking for me all the way to the entrance of the Myriad Poison Hall, without Nunim or the others noticing.
“Hwa-eun!”
As I shouted and ran toward the gazebo, Nunim, who had been looking on the verge of tears, broke into a bright smile when she saw me.
Realizing that she was smiling at me, she quickly corrected her expression in embarrassment and rose from her seat.
“Soryong.... Are you alright?”
“Yes, of course. I’m perfectly fine. Thank you for worrying.”
“Hm? Cho?”
While we were exchanging greetings, Nunim spotted Cho on my shoulder and finally realized what had happened.
Nunim scolded Cho in a reproachful tone.
“Cho, didn’t I tell you not to go far because it makes Mommy worry? You have to tell me when you go somewhere!”
At Nunim’s scolding, Cho’s antennae drooped low.
To save Cho from more scolding, I quickly explained to Nunim what I had discovered.
“That’s not the important thing right now, Hwa-eun. Cho understands human speech!”
At that, Nunim tilted her head.
“Cho has always been good at understanding people’s words, though? That’s not new....”
‘Ah, right.’
I had skipped ahead in my excitement, so I explained again from the beginning.
“I mean it understands even when I just think the words, without saying them out loud!”
“What?”
“Watch.”
‘Cho, spin around once. Then jump onto Daddy’s body.’
I had Cho spin around once on the gazebo, then jump from Nunim’s body onto mine, and told her,
“See? I only thought it in my head, and it followed.”
“You’re saying you only said it inwardly?”
“Yes!”
Nunim’s eyes widened as she watched Cho move, clearly amazed.
“H-How?”
“Amazing, right? Isn’t it?”
“Yes!”
“I need to check if the other kids can do this too.”
“The other kids?”
When I said I would check the others, Nunim’s eyes sparkled with interest.
With Nunim now in full-on cooperation mode, we lined the three centipedes up in a row to see if the others could respond too.
‘Alright, everyone, lift your heads!’
And so the verification process began, but none of the others responded except Cho.
I checked them one by one, but the other two showed no reaction.
Nunim even tried giving instructions, thinking they might understand her better, but not even Cho responded to her voice.
Nunim looked disappointed, wondering aloud why she wasn’t able to do it. In the end, a little conference was held in front of the centipedes with the topic: Why is it only Cho and me?
“I thought it was because Cho shed twice and came out of the larval stage, but maybe that’s not it?”
“What’s different about Cho compared to the others?”
“Hmm....”
Just as I was pondering why only Cho could do it and not the other two, Nunim, who had been staring at the kids in thought beside me, suddenly lit up as if she had figured something out.
“Ah! Cho has something different from the others!”
“Cho is different from the others?”
“What is it?”
Nunim claimed Cho had a difference from the others.
Though Cho, Hyang, and Bin had slight differences, they looked almost the same, so I tilted my head in confusion....
“The Great Ritual!”
“Great Ritual? Ah! The Great Ritual!”
Come to think of it, that was it.
The link between me and Cho had to be the Great Ritual.
Because I had directly absorbed Cho’s venom.
“I have to go confirm this with Grandfather right away!”
“I’ll come too, Soryong!”
Together with Nunim, we rushed to the Myriad Poison Hall and happened to find Grandfather just stepping out. Showing him Cho and explaining what we had discovered, we could see he was surprised as expected.
“Th-This is!?”
“Amazing, right? Cho understands perfectly even when I speak in my mind. I think it’s because of the Great Ritual - is that correct?”
“The others don’t respond at all, so it must be the Great Ritual. Grandfather, did you already know about this?”
The moment we discovered this truth, an emergency was declared within the Tang Family, and a few hours later, a secret meeting was held in the Family Head’s hall with only direct family members in attendance.
Discovering something new about martial arts was considered an emergency.
“Is it really because of the Great Ritual?”
The meeting began with my question in the quiet room.
In response, Grandfather shook his head.
“No.”
“No? But aside from the Great Ritual, there’s no other possible explanation for what happened between Cho and me....”
“Exactly. Grandfather, isn’t it hard to explain what happened between Soryong and Cho without the Great Ritual?”
Just as Nunim said, there was no link between Cho and me other than the Great Ritual, so we couldn’t understand why Grandfather was giving such a definitive no.
But as Grandfather continued his explanation, I found myself nodding in agreement.
“There have been quite a few people in Tang Sect’s history who accepted the venom of spiritual creatures through the Great Ritual. Though it was a minor path, there were always efforts to study it. However, something like this has never been recorded.
Of course, most spiritual creatures were killed to extract their venom and refine spiritual pills, but there were those who tried to raise them. So if this kind of supernatural ability had ever been discovered, it would have been recorded.
But I’ve never seen or heard of it even once, so this must be due to something else.”
“That’s right, Father. I think so too.”
That was a convincing reason.
“Then what could be the cause?”
When I asked what the cause might be, Grandfather responded.
“It must be because of the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique.”
“That’s right, Father. I think so too. After all, the Great Ritual was created to accept poison. And Soryong is the only one who has accepted the venom of a spiritual-grade poisonous creature through the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique.”
“Yes, and it’s probably due to that influence that something like this has occurred.”
“Yes, I think so as well. I checked the records from a hundred years ago, and it appears there were intense debates back then involving this Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique and the Five Poison Martial Arts.”
“You mean them?”
In response to Nunim’s question, Father-in-law nodded.
“Yes, I mean the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.”
“Ah, the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace....”
Indeed, if I recalled correctly from a few days ago, I had been told that the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique and the Five Poison Martial Arts I had learned were martial arts created by the Five Poisons Sect by blending the strengths of the Tang Family's martial arts with those of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
The words of Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, gave further weight to that theory.
“You might not know this well, but the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace wields beasts as if they were their own limbs. This mysterious ability is probably embedded within the Five Poisons Returning to Origin Technique.”
“Then finding out the exact reason behind this might be an impossible task?”
“Most likely, yes.”
I couldn’t quite follow the conversation between Nunim and Grandfather, but Father-in-law explained it to me in a way I could understand.
“The reason they’re called the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace is because they can command beasts. And now, you too can command venomous creatures, can you not?”
“That’s true, isn’t it?”
“To uncover this secret, we’d need their help. But why would they share their most precious secret with us? And if they find out that their secret leaked here a hundred years ago, who knows how they’ll react?”
Certainly, if a secret leaked out two hundred years ago and they chased it for a hundred years until they annihilated the ones responsible, then their obsession with martial arts is on a level I can’t even begin to imagine.
Judging by how everyone was pleased when the Murim Alliance leader gave me the secret manual, and how the Blood Cult came back looking for the Blood Water Poisonous Claws, it was clear that discovering this secret would be a distant goal.
After all, the most precious and important thing here is clearly the martial arts secret manual.
And if this secret is indeed the core content of that manual, then it must be the greatest secret of the Southern Barbarian Beast Palace.
Still, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of regret.
Not just Cho, but also Hyang, Bin, Snow, Ice, the Golden-Furred King Bees, and even Yohwa.
I had this little dream of registering them all and forming something like the Bremen Town Musicians.
That’s why I wanted to find out whether it might be possible to register the other kids too, since they shared the same poison. So I asked Grandfather again.
“Still, is there really no way? Maybe if we paid them or asked as a favor....”
Isn’t there a saying that if a deal fails, you should check whether the offer was too cheap?
That was the thought behind my question, but Grandfather responded with a smiling face.
"Well, unless you prevent the extermination of the South Barbarian Beast Palace, I doubt it."
It seemed Grandfather wasn’t in the best mood.
Was there really any need to twist his words like that?
As if I wasn't disappointed enough already....